Autodesk® Fluid
by Eric March on November 7, 2008 at 1:40 pm
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App Name: Autodesk® Fluid
Developer: Autodesk Inc.
Category: Entertainment
Well, you can cross Autodesk off the list of software heavyweights who haven’t written anything for the iPhone yet. The folks behind industry leading 3D design apps like Maya, Animator and 3DS Max have officially released something for the iPhone.
Unfortunately, it’s not Maya, Animator or 3DS Max — but let’s keep the dreams realistic, shall we? No, actually, Autodesk have brought just a tiny little piece of Maya to the iPhone in the form of Fluid, a scaled-down iPhone version of the Fluid Effects module found in Maya. Except of course that you can’t actually use it for anything — it’s just a toy to show off what said module is capable of to get you interested in Maya.
To be sure, Fluid runs exceptionally … fluid. The resolution is scaled down, but the physics engine that calculates the fluid dynamics is spot on. Just tap and hold or drag your finger to send a stream of fluid into the virtual tank and watch what happens. By default it will even respond to gravity, so you can rotate it and see the fluid settle to the bottom (it shifts colours when you do, too), or shake it and watch it wiggle and wave. Double-tap to reset.
The settings are sparse here — you can toggle colour cycling (constantly cycles colours whether you’re rotating or not) and adjust the amount of gravity response and turbulence (swirling) in the water.
It’s a fun little app and beautifully responsive. Now, if you could change the colour of the fluid your fingertips pour in to watch the colours swirl and comingle, that would be even nicer.
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